Past and present collide in election race

With former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie's entrance to the federal election race, talk of marginal seats and the Prime Minister's popularity ratings were part of politics past and present colliding.

Transcript

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: A blast from the past has exploded over the federal election race.

Former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie is a shock entrant in the contest as the Labor candidate for one of the state's most marginal seats, Forde.

Even some in the Opposition concede he should win it, snaring one crucial extra seat for the Government.

Labor also hopes he'll help lifts its vote across Queensland, where it's been in the doldrums.

But senior Coalition sources have told 7.30 their polling shows the Liberal National Party is ahead in every marginal seat in Queensland and that Kevin Rudd's gloss is rapidly fading.

Shortly I'll be speaking with Peter Beattie, but first political editor Chris Uhlmann looks at a day when the past and present collided.

CHRIS UHLMANN, REPORTER: For nine years, Peter Beattie ruled and captivated Queensland. Now everything old is new again.

KEVIN RUDD, PRIME MINISTER: I am Kevin, I'm from Queensland and I'm here to help. His name's Peter, he's from Queensland and he's here to help as well.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Today the former premier of nine years was revealed as the new candidate for the marginal seat of Forde, south of Brisbane. It's held by the Liberal National Party by just 1.6 per cent.

PETER BEATTIE, ALP CANDIDATE FOR FORDE: Cornubia is one of the important suburbs in Forde. Heather and I moved into that suburb this morning.

CHRIS UHLMANN: He flew back into Australia with his wife today and shunted aside the preselected Labor candidate, Des Hardman.

KEVIN RUDD: Standing down to make room for Peter Beattie has been a hard decision for him and demonstration of his true Labor values.

CHRIS UHLMANN: It's also a demonstration of a lack of confidence in candidates who were preselected in Liberal-held seats when Labor was facing a wipeout and that in this new era of politics apparently nothing anyone says means anything. Peter Beattie always maintained that he would never make the move to federal politics.

CHRIS UHLMANN: But then he also said Kevin Rudd lacked judgment, had stuffed up the Goss Government and should've bowed out of Parliament to give Julia Gillard clear air.

PETER BEATTIE (June 23, 2011): What I basically said was he should consider appearing on the backbench and then an exit at an appropriate time. That's what I suggested. Timing is of the essence here.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Now all is forgiven and forgotten, the hatchet buried between two men who have never cared for each other.

KEVIN RUDD: Occasionally Peter and I have had the odd stoush in the past. That's OK. That's life in the Labor Party.

PETER BEATTIE: It's a measure of the Prime Minister's leadership that he was prepared to put that aside, approach me directly in the interest of what he thought - and I agreed with him - was the best chance of winning this seat.

CHRIS UHLMANN: There's another eerie collision between past and present here. In 2001, Peter Beattie led a minority government facing a tough election.

PETER BEATTIE (Sept. 6, 2000): Look, if there was an election this Saturday, we probably would lose.

KEVIN RUDD: If we had an election yesterday, Mr Abbott would be Prime Minister as of today.

CHRIS UHLMANN: The election was tipped to be a close shave because it came in the aftermath of an inquiry that laid bare electoral fraud by members of the Labor Party.

REPORTER (2000): Despite the loss of three Labor MPs to the electoral rort scandal, including Deputy Premier Jim Elder and rising star Mike Kaiser, Peter Beattie will try and paint himself as the man who cleaned up the Labor Party.

PETER BEATTIE (2000): I'm embarrassed, I'm mortified, I'm upset by it because the Labor Party that I joined and I love does not support crooks.

KEVIN RUDD: Like all Australians, I've been appalled by the allegations arising out of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Peter Beattie perfected the art of apologising for his government's failures and pitching himself as the only one who could fix them. In 2001, despite its travails, the Beattie Government announced it was ...

CHRIS UHLMANN: And in 2013, Kevin Rudd is trying to reboot by promising the people who've been in government for six years offer ...

KEVIN RUDD (ALP TV advertisement): A better way, a smarter way, a new way to secure Australia's future.

CHRIS UHLMANN: But here's a chilling thought for the Coalition: it worked for Peter Beattie. In 2001 he won the election in a landslide. And here's something else some cynics might find unbelievable: if the former premier is elected, he's happy to work on the backbench.

PETER BEATTIE: I am happy to be a humble backbencher. As all of you know, I've been humble all my life and that humility will continue.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Some in the Coalition are twitchy and worry that Peter Beattie will have an effect in Queensland far outside Forde, perhaps as a sign that the troops need calming. A senior Liberal source told 7.30 that the Coalition's research shows it leads in every Queensland marginal seat and that the popularity of Kevin Rudd has plummeted since he called the election.

TONY ABBOTT: The Labor Party knows what the Coalition knows: Mr Rudd has not been the electoral wonder worker in Queensland that they thought he might be and that's why they've now calling on Peter Beattie to the rescue.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Kevin Rudd smells fear.

KEVIN RUDD: That the local Liberal National Party can put together a gaggle of folks out the front says to me one thing: they're a bit anxious.

CHRIS UHLMANN: But this audacious move is not without risk. Peter Beattie has a rich history in Queensland, not all of it fondly remembered.

VOX POP: We don't want him. He's no good.

JOURNALIST: Why don't you want him?

VOX POP: He's a grub.

CHRIS UHLMANN: There are voices in Labor that say Peter Beattie will be a headache for Kevin Rudd after the election, but if he helps the Prime Minister pull off a miraculous victory, it will be a problem he'll be happy to have.